


After the Oni

by Red_Lion



Category: Lego Ninjago
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:41:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28573926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Lion/pseuds/Red_Lion
Summary: A fic that’s been sitting in my notes for months, set after March of the Oni[I just want to send this to people, I’m bad at titles]
Kudos: 19





	After the Oni

The Realm of Madness sprawled out into the horizon at every angle, the horizon line itself blocked by jagged peaks and the black fog that spilled between them. Here, nothing had seen a day or night, just light that came and went and darkness that existed to fight against it. 

And Lord Garmadon found himself arriving here, choosing to go his own path yet again, after the Oni departed from Ninjago, he was no longer needed (yet still guilty of various crimes to the point where he would rather flee Ninjago than go back to prison). 

“Why did you bring me here?” He asked, to himself or the Realm, or to whatever higher power pulled him to this realm of imbalance and fear. “What do you want from me?” 

I left to find myself, he reminded himself. I am here to figure out who I want to be. 

True, Harumi had only resurrected the Oni, the destroyer, all the evil and power she needed to claim Ninjago for the world she wanted to see. However, there might still have been more than she had let him know. She kept her secrets. Too many of them. 

And then Lloyd had said something, trying to get Garmadon to remember, who he was without the evil of the Oni or Devourer. Garmadon had pushed it away that day, but it since haunted him to no end. 

He knew that he wanted to remember. Somewhere, somehow, there still lay hidden a part of him that cared. Whether he wanted to find it and embrace it or find it and destroy it forever, he still didn’t know, but he couldn’t deny it any longer. 

“Who am I.” He mused, sitting down to watch a rat scurry from rock to rock, hiding and dashing through the open to hide again. The rat hid again, and Garmadon looked down at his hands. The black of his Oni form had started to recede, his hands almost human again. Of course. His physical form reflected who he thought he was, or perhaps what he thought he was. “I don’t think you’d know.” He addressed the rat as it poked a head out, sniffing the air and slowly making a move into the open. “You remind me of...” 

An enemy I once defeated? A friend of my father’s?

“An old friend.” He smiled, choosing to remember Mystaké as the kind old woman she had chosen to be. “I don’t suppose you know who I am.” 

The rat scampered out, pausing briefly in the open before making a circle around where Garmadon sat, coming around to sit in front of him. 

“But I don’t think you could tell me not to if I decided to tell you anyways.” He sighed. Telling things he’d never tell a living soul to the first thing he encountered in the Realms of Madness that didn’t try to kill and eat him. He must finally be going insane. 

The rat looked at him, circling to lay down. He took that as an invitation. 

“Where would I begin?” Garmadon asked, looking to the bleak sky. “I can’t remember who I was before the Devourer very well, and afterwards... I can’t remember who was in control, the evil or myself.” 

The rat simply looked at him. Did he expect it to talk?

“And after the first time it took over, I can’t remember much at all.” Garmadon said. “I did remember... my son, Lloyd. He saved me, but-“ 

The rat stood up to walk a few small paces closer, tilting its head expectantly. 

“-That time, I wanted to be saved.” Garmadon tried to find the right words. “The Devourer forced its evil onto me, but the Oni... the Oni are my ancestors. They are the source of my elemental powers, I don’t know if I can go without them.” 

There had been a time when he had sworn a vow of peace. 

“No, that wasn’t me.” 

Why not? 

“I broke the vow. I fought to protect... my son.” Garmadon said. 

And then you fought your son. 

“Quiet.” 

He sighed. Definitely going crazy. At least the rat couldn’t laugh at him. He took off his helmet, setting it beside him. His hair fell in front of his eyes, still black like his Oni form, broken by a thick streak of white.

“Before that...” he thought hard, trying to pick out which memories were his own. “Should I start with the beginning?” He asked, even though he knew he’d never get a verbal response from a rat. He took its inevitable silence as a yes. 

“The Devourer took me to Chen.” Garmadon said. “And I met Clouse.” 

If he thought about it hard enough, he could see the rat pushing him to continue. 

“He was my rival second, my... friend first.” Garmadon chose his words carefully. “Before Chen pushed us apart. That’s what he did. He took advantage of my ambition, just like Harumi.” 

“I didn’t want to hate him.” He watched the rat get up again, this time getting close enough to climb into his hands. Setting the rat on his lap, he watched his Oni form recede even further. “And then there was Wu and Misako. I didn’t know how to feel. I pushed them apart just like how Chen hurt me. Whether it was the Devourer or not, we called it love.” 

He tried his best to remember who he had been next, but the Devourer’s control left him no clear memories. 

“After that, anger, and fear. I don’t remember much.” He said. “Even after I found peace, I was still afraid. I only wish I could have told the truth on my own circumstances.” 

Are you still afraid?

He took his time to answer. 

“Yes.” 

What are you afraid of?

“I don’t know.”

If you don’t know what you fear, then it makes no sense to fear it. You can’t let a fear control you if you don’t even know what it is, Master Garmadon. 

“Do I know you?” He impatiently asked the rat. 

“Maybe.” The rat, if it could have, might have smiled coyly. 

“Mystaké.” 

“Never heard of her.” 

“I know it’s you.”

The rat chuckled in Mystaké’s voice, slowly walking away and turning around to sit up on its hind legs. 

“How- I thought you were dead.” Garmadon said, guilt washing over him upon seeing her again. 

“You thought you could kill a full-blooded Oni? Ha!” Mystaké exclaimed. 

“Harumi made me believe-“

“Harumi, Harumi, Chen, the Devourer.” Mystaké cut him off. “Think for yourself.” 

“That’s... what I’m trying to do.” 

“And you’re not doing a very good job at it.” Mystaké said. Garmadon decided that he had liked her better when she didn’t speak. “What do you want?” She pushed. 

“I don’t know.” Garmadon insisted. “I don’t know what I can want.”

Mystaké shook her head. 

“You need somebody to tell you what to want?” 

Garmadon chose not to answer that question. 

“Do you want to be forgiven?” Mystaké asked. “Do you want to return and correct your mistakes?”

“No.” Garmadon knew that the ninja would never forgive him. He wouldn’t forgive himself. 

“Do you want to be on the run forever?” 

“No. I want to start over.” Garmadon said. “I want to go back and live my whole life again, but it would be beyond irresponsible... and I’m afraid they’ve given me too many second chances” 

Mystaké nodded. At least now, he had an answer. 

“What would I even say if I went back?” Garmadon continued. “What reason could I give them to take me back?”

“Earning trust back has never been easy.” Mystaké murmured. “But if it’s what you want, well... you’ll find a way. Now, do you want it?”

“Yes.” 

“There it is.” He heard the smile in Mystaké’s tone. 

“I want to make things right, if they could never forgive me, it’ll be their decision.”

“Very good.” 

Mystaké the rat climbed back into Garmadon’s hands, climbing her way up to sit on his shoulder. The armor he had worn before had vanished. Just like how he had been wearing his old clothes after the defeat of the Overlord had burned the evil out of his body, he looked down to see the clothes he’d swapped with Lloyd, in the belly of the Preeminent so long ago. 

“Shall we go home?” 


End file.
